Capture (Seaside Pictures 1)

The thunder rolled.

"And the lightning strikes…" I said in a country twang. "Another love grows cold—"

"On a sleepless night." She joined in with her smooth voice. "Are you really singing Garth Brooks right now?"

I chuckled. "It seemed to fit the mood."

"A song about adultery fits the mood?"

"I was focusing more on the thunder part… and just in case you were wondering, I don't have some hidden family somewhere else that I'm cheating on by being with you." I chuckled.

She laughed softly. Her fingers brushed the front of my bare chest, dancing in a rhythm I wasn't sure she was aware she was even making. "What about Jo-Jo?"

"The potatoes?"

"The girl."

"Ah." Her fingers kept tickling my chest. Damn it felt… too good. "She, uh…" Focus Lincoln. "… she's gone. Her publicist thought being seen with me would help her, since her newest movie is about to drop, and according to her, I'm Hollywood's newest piece of hot ass."

"Wow." I could feel her breath as her hair tickled my neck. "You okay with that title?"

"Well, I do have a nice ass."

"At the risk of placating your ego… yes, you do."

"Jay know you've been looking at my ass?"

"Well, you're alive so… I'm going to say no." Dani shifted a bit.

I clenched my jaw while she sank further into my body, her heavy sighs doing really bad things to my self-control.

I'd never had to exert any sort of control over my baser instincts. If I wanted something, I took it. Maybe that made me an ass, but I was a guy, and if a girl threw herself at me, it wasn't like I was going to spout some bullshit about not respecting her in the morning.

But with Dani, every ounce of energy I possessed was going toward not listening to my body, and trying desperately to listen to logic and sound reason, something that clearly I'd been out of practice with.

The rain lightened slightly, enough that the angry white-capped waves were visible as they crashed against the rocks in front of us.

"I like it here," Dani finally said.

"On my lap or Depot Bay? You're going to have to be more specific." And then I said shit like that and just made it worse.

She could have cupped my face with her hands; we were familiar enough with one another for her to take any sort of lead in the relationship, and I'd follow. Instead, she crossed her arms and shrugged. "Both, I think."

Pride pricked. I narrowed my eyes. "So you're telling me that between beach — what with all its whaleness — and my lap, it's almost a tie."

"Hey, you're the one who doesn't like whales."

Baffled, I stared at her. Maybe too long for comfort, but I was a bit… taken aback. She was sitting with me, alone, without electricity, and she wasn't hitting on me.

I was the one trying to keep myself from pouncing on her, but she looked just… fine. As if my presence did absolutely nothing to her, when I damn well knew my kiss had affected her just as much as hers had affected me. So, why the hell wasn't she the one dying a slow, painful, arousing death?

"Tell me something." I cleared my throat and looked away from her. I had to. "If things were different. If your parents hadn't died…"

She sucked in a breath.

"If you were… happier. What would you be doing right now?"

"That's kind of personal," she whispered.

"I'm a personal guy."

Dani pressed her lips together, her eyes narrowing. "Honestly, I'd still need a summer job, so I'd probably be in the same place I am now. Only I would have begged Jay for the chance to be your assistant rather than being forced into it."

Ouch. "You weren't forced."

"Um, yeah I was." She laughed softly. "My choices were either work for you or get sent to boarding school. Okay, maybe not boarding school, but the last thing I want to do is hurt Jay or my sister, so I said yes."

Great. So I was with the one girl in the entire universe who didn't actually want to be around me? How unlucky could a guy get? And she was underage? Good one.

"Am I so bad?" I asked, voice hoarse.

"According to the tabloids, you're squeaky clean… no drugs, no partying, no late-night orgies."

"Oh well." I exhaled. "Sorry to disappoint, but I had the best orgy a few weeks ago, drugs everywhere, alcohol…"

Dani burst out laughing. "Oh, I'm sure."

"Fine. I'm tame. And boring. I like reading. And the last time I went to a party, I left early because Outlander was on."

"I like that." Her voice was quiet as she started running her hands up and down my chest again. I thought it was mindless, like tapping her foot or biting her lip, but it made me crazy. "It makes you seem more… normal."

"I am normal."

"Hollywood heartthrobs aren't normal, sorry to break it to you. You forget that I'm best friends with AD2. Do you even know how many times they get bras thrown at their face? Or the amount of fan mail Jay gets in one day? It's not normal. Normal is eating a hamburger without someone taking your picture and posting it on the Internet. Trust me, I'm broken enough to know what normal looks like."

"Are you saying you're just like me? Not normal?"